BROKEN ARROW, Okla. – Ronnie Watchorn has been a fan of red dirt music for quite a while. During that time he came to realize that there wasn’t really a niche for general merchandise regarding red dirt music overall, outside of specific artists tee shirts usually available and limited to purchasing at a live show.

“I have always been a fan of red dirt music and I just don't really get into the bubblegum pop country and then I started noticing though that you could buy some of their shirts and stuff at the shows but you can never find anything for it outside of the shows,” explained Watchorn. “Then it's like people ask what you listen to and you start telling them band names and they said ‘I don't know who these people are’ and I’ll say well it's red dirt music and they're just like ‘what on earth is red dirt music?’ or it's like ‘oh it's country music’. No, it's red dirt there's a difference.”

So this inspired Watchorn to create a t-shirt printing company to help spread awareness of what red dirt music is and to support the artists within the scene.

“I started kind of doing the red dirt stuff just because I wanted it and then as I started doing more of it, I kind of started getting more attention on it and the more attention I got the more I thought well maybe people will actually want this. That's when I got thinking about it and that's a fantastic way to build awareness,” said Watchorn.

The company opened on July 4th 2016. Watchorn has sent out his t-shirts to several artists in hopes of spreading the word about his new company by them wearing them out and about.

“Probably every other order I get is from somebody that saw Jason Boland in my shirt and asked him where he got his shirt. Also his bulldog has an Instagram account and the dog promotes us too,” Watchorn said with a laugh. “I’ve had several people say that dog drives a really hard bargain, or just mentions that this dog is always talking about our stuff.”

The print shop is located in Broken Arrow, but the store is available online as well. At the moment there are two active designs for tshirts, and a few other different items for sale. The company is working on securing more work from local businesses as well as local artists who would like to have merch designed and printed.

“Homestead Clothing Co is a company born out of that same red dirt spirit as the music that found its way across Oklahoma and Texas and is still finding it’s way across the world. One late night whiskey fueled ballad at a time. Our products are all designed and made by hand in the heart of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma by a red dirt enthusiast and his friends,” is what the website says about the company.

Homestead has partnered with both Red Dirt Relief Fund and Red Dirt Nation to provide shirts for the companies. Homestead Clothing Co. just recently provided the t-shirts for Tom Skinner’s Skyline Music Festival in Tulsa for Red Dirt Relief Fund, and 10% of all of the online sales of their products is donated back to the RDRF as a way to give back and help support the scene even more.

"Ronnie reached out to us via email. We took a look at some of his previous work and decided to give it a try,” said Jeremy Scott, operations manager of Red Dirt Nation, about their partnership.

Watchorn said that working with RDN has been great, and also a great way to help promote his new business and that he is very grateful for the partnership.

"We've had some of these t-shirts for awhile and I finally had enough of looking at them, so I got the ball rolling on RDN's merch," explained Scott from RDN about the new merch from Homestead Clothing Co.. “I really dig our new shirt 'The Continental'. Great combo of our logo and the nation. Plus the tri-blend shirts are super soft. They have that 'broke-in' feel."

Watchorn has big plans and goals for the company, and even bigger goals in mind beyond the clothing company. Right now he is working very hard to grown the company and find new businesses and artists to take on as clients. Watchorn is working on a sales presentation kit that he wants to use to reach out to artists in the local area to offer up his printing services for their merch, as well as try to break into selling actual albums and music on his website for the artists as well. His ultimate goal is to open a venue attached to the print shop in Broken Arrow, which will give artists another place to play, as well as bring music to his hometown. Broken Arrow doesn’t currently have an actual music venue, people have to drive to Tulsa or beyond for that, and Watchorn wants to bring the music to them.

You can check out the online store on their website at www.homestead-clothing-co.myshopify.com. You can also check out their FB and Instagram pages for more information about the company.